Parade, Birthday Celebration Launch Christmas City Fair

July 14, 1990|The Morning Call

Bethlehem kicked off its 73rd birthday celebration last night during opening ceremonies for the city's annual Christmas City Fair.

As always, the event began with a brief parade down Main Street, led by a police color guard. Heavy municipal equipment, floats, Santa Claus, the American Legion Band of Bethlehem and an assortment of other entries moved steadily to the fairgrounds off the south end of Main Street.

Threatening skies prompted fair officials to relocate the ceremonies from the band shell to beneath the much safer arches of the crumbling Hill-to-Hill Bridge.

Somewhere along the move, the cake split down the middle, looking more like earthquake rubble in the end than a culinary masterpiece. Donated each year by George's Foodliner and Hank Chadwick of radio station WGPA, this year's confection was molded to resemble Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church.

City Councilman Richard "Bucky" Szulborski praised the South Side landmark church for its 100 years as a committed community member, and introduced the Rev. Robert Kozel, who offered the invocation.

After a mass singing of the national anthem, accompanied by the American Legion Band, Mayor Ken Smith welcomed fair-goers, calling the fair "one tremendous, exciting block party."

Part of the mayor's tradition is to recognize community members whose work has left some distinguishable mark on the city.

This year, kudos went to John Cornish, the fair's entertainment chairman, and 75-year-old Nick Serban, affectionately known as "Mr. South Side."

The fair, which resumes at 1 p.m. today, commemorates the incorporation of the separate boroughs of South Bethlehem, West Bethlehem and Bethlehem into a single municipality.